The Design Consultation

Every project we take on starts here, and there is a reason for that. A two-hour walkthrough with a written plan at the end is the fastest, cheapest way to answer the question every new owner in San Miguel is quietly carrying: what should I actually do with this house, and what will it really cost?

What is a design consultation, exactly?

It is two hours of an expert’s full attention on your property, followed by a written plan. Not a sales meeting with a clipboard — a working session. We walk every room together, in person or over video, and talk through what the house wants to be: which walls and floors are assets, where the light comes from and when, what furniture the proportions can carry, what to keep from what you have, and what the honest budget range looks like for the result you are imagining.

Within three business days, you receive the direction memo by email. It is a document you can act on with or without us: the recommended design direction in plain language, a realistic total budget range, the priority order of rooms if you want to phase the work, and the package tier that fits your situation.

The fee is $400 USD, and it is credited in full toward any package you book within sixty days. In practice, most clients treat it as a deposit on a decision they have not made yet.

Who books a consultation?

Three kinds of people, mostly.

New buyers who just closed — or are about to — and are staring at an empty colonial shell wondering where to begin. The consultation turns “where do we even start” into a one-page plan with numbers attached.

Owners planning a refresh. You have lived in the house for a few years, it works, but it has never quite felt finished. A consultation identifies the three moves that change everything versus the ten that change very little.

House hunters choosing between properties. This is the use case people don’t expect. If you are deciding between two homes, we will walk both and tell you which one has the better bones. A house with generous light and honest proportions can be furnished beautifully on a moderate budget; a house with awkward flow will eat money forever. Knowing that before you sign is worth far more than $400.

What does the direction memo include?

The memo is the deliverable most clients keep. It covers four things:

A recommended design direction. Not a mood board — a direction. What the architecture is asking for, what palette and furniture language will serve it, and what to avoid. If your house is a 1780s centro colonial, we will tell you why chrome and glass will always fight it, and what wins instead.

A realistic budget range. Real numbers for your actual square meters, based on what furnishing projects in San Miguel cost when they are done properly — customs, delivery, installation and all. This is the number that lets you plan instead of guess.

A priority order of rooms. If you are phasing the work, sequence matters. Bedrooms before terraces if you are moving in; living spaces before bedrooms if you are hosting; everything at once if the math favors a single install, which it usually does.

The package tier that fits. We tell you plainly whether your project is a Tier 1 rental furnishing, a full custom home, or something that should start with construction oversight before any furniture is discussed. If the honest answer is “you don’t need us — do these three things yourself,” the memo says that too.

How does the process work step by step?

Step one: book and pay online. When you book, you complete a short questionnaire — the property, your goals, your budget comfort zone, and your timeline. This means the two hours are spent on your house, not on background.

Step two: the walkthrough. Two hours, room by room. In person if you are here; by video if you are not. Bring every question you have been collecting. The awkward ones — “is this furniture worth keeping?”, “was this renovation done badly?” — are usually the most valuable.

Step three: the memo. Within three business days, the written summary lands in your inbox. Most clients tell us they read it twice: once for the plan, once for the number.

Why do we charge for the first meeting?

Because free consultations produce bad advice. When the first meeting is free, it is a sales call, and everything said in it is shaped by the need to close. When you have paid for the meeting, you are owed the truth: about the budget, about which rooms matter, about whether your existing furniture is worth shipping down (usually: some of it), and about whether you need us at all.

The $400 also does something quieter: it means every consultation we run is with someone serious, which means we can give each one real preparation instead of running volume. And since the fee credits toward any package, clients who proceed effectively paid nothing for it.

What questions should you bring?

The best consultations are interrogations. Some of the questions that earn their time:

• What would you do with this room if it were your house?
• What is the one thing worth spending disproportionately on here?
• What should we not touch?
• Is this quoted renovation price reasonable for San Miguel?
• Can this house work for renters and for us?
• What does “done” cost — the real number, not the optimistic one?

What happens after the consultation?

Whatever you want. There is no follow-up sequence, no pressure call. Some clients book a package the same week and the $400 disappears into their first payment. Some take the memo and phase the work themselves over a year. Some discover their house needs walls moved before it needs sofas, and start with Project Shepherding instead.

The memo is yours either way. It is written to be useful to whoever executes it — even if that is you, alone, with a pickup truck and patience.

If you are weighing what your home could become, this is the first step — and the only one that costs $400.